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The firearms amnesty, which ended on January 31, 2021, offers the opportunity to surrender firearms with expired licenses and allows owners to apply for new licenses for these firearms. (Archive)
- Currently, applications for firearms licenses take 120 business days to complete, instead of the usual 90 days.
- The delays have been caused by staff shortages due to Covid-19.
- The firearms amnesty period, which lasted until January 31, has compounded the delays.
Waiting for a Firearm License Application? You will now have to wait up to 120 business days because the pandemic and the firearms amnesty period have caused serious delays in the application process.
The delay will now cause requests to be completed in 120 business days, instead of the usual 90 days.
The Central Register of Firearms of the South African Police Service has been hit by staff shortages due to the pandemic, said police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo.
“The growing Covid-19 pandemic … has had unexpected consequences on the service delivery front,” Naidoo said.
“SAPS members are operating at reduced capacity to mitigate the spread of the virus. In the event of a positive case, buildings are also evacuated for decontamination purposes, adding to the delays.”
The firearms amnesty period, which was declared from December 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020 and then extended to January 31, 2021, has also compounded delays in the license renewal process, Naidoo said.
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“Applications for licenses regarding firearms surrendered during the amnesty period aggravated the situation after the total number of applications for firearms licenses increased by more than 80% during the duration of the amnesty,” he said.
“License applications for surrendered firearms require a completely different process than a normal license renewal which inevitably lengthens the turnaround time for completion.”
The delays mean that the turnaround time for a firearm license application is longer than the normal 90 business days, and police have now extended the period to 120 days, Naidoo said.
“Therefore, applicants for firearms licenses are requested to be patient and allow SAPS to do due diligence in the administration of these applications. It is ensured that every effort is being made to process these applications within the new response time of 120 business days, “he said.
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